Nico Rosberg recorded his eighth career victory in the sport and ended Lewis Hamilton’s five-race winning form by beating his Mercedes team-mate at Interlagos.
By converting his tenth pole position of the 2014 Formula 1 season into victory, Rosberg reduced the points lead down to 17 heading into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix double-points finale.
Hamilton’s hopes of challenging Rosberg’s supremacy went undone when he half spun at the Descida do Lago on lap 28 of 71.
The Mercedes driver ran wide after correcting a snap of oversteer as he braked for the corner. Lewis subsequently revealed over the radio that he had wound his brake bias too far to the rear.
Hamilton hustled superbly to recover the time lost to Rosberg, and put him under pressure by remaining within DRS range during a frantic final stint (in which both drivers exchanged fastest laps), but ultimately Hamilton had to settle for second.
Home crowd favourite Felipe Massa brought smiles to the faces of the passionate fans by completing the podium.
The Williams driver survived a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane at his first stop, and the embarrassment of accidentally driving into the McLaren pit at his last, to finish third.
Team-mate Valtteri Bottas should have been well-placed to capitalise on Massa’s errors, after running fourth early on, but a lengthy delay at his first pitstop set him back badly, and he lost more time when Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India forced him wide while overtaking into the Senna S.
Bottas eventually finished in a lapped tenth.
McLaren’s Jenson Button took that fourth place with a brave pass around the outside of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari at the Descida do Lago with ten laps to the flag.
Their side-by-side duelling also allowed world champion Sebastian Vettel to nip through into fifth in his Red Bull.
Vettel might have finished higher but lost ground while battling Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren on the opening lap, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo retired shortly before half-distance with a left front suspension failure.
Raikkonen started tenth and dropped behind the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez on the opening lap, but made progress by being the only driver to complete the race on two pitstops.
The Iceman lost time to what appeared to be a front jack problem at his second stop, and defended desperately in a battle of world champions with Fernando Alonso in the closing stages, but ultimately couldn’t prevent his Ferrari team-mate passing him for sixth with a couple of laps to run.
Hulkenberg made good use of alternative tyre strategy – running the soft tyre at the end – to finish eighth, ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren and Bottas, who just held off Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat to claim the final point.
So the championship goes down to the wire at Abu Dhabi, featuring that controversial double points.
Lewis Hamilton will win the title by just finishing in second position no matter if Nico Rosberg wins. But the question remains the reliability of his Mercedes W05 Hybrid.
If will be a major upset if Hamilton, who scores the most victories with ten, loses out to the championship due to the gimmick over the double points at the season finale.
Bring on the championship showdown.
Brazilian Grand Prix, after 71 laps:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h30m02.555s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1.457s
3 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 41.031s
4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 48.658s
5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 51.420s
6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m01.906s
7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m03.730s
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m03.934s
9 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m10.085s
10 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1 Lap
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1 Lap
12 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1 Lap
13 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1 Lap
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
15 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1 Lap
16 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1 Lap
17 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 8 Laps
Retirements:
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault Front suspension failure
Drivers’ Championship:
1 Lewis Hamilton 334
2 Nico Rosberg 317
3 Daniel Ricciardo 214
4 Sebastian Vettel 159
5 Fernando Alonso 157
6 Valtteri Bottas 156
7 Jenson Button 106
8 Felipe Massa 98
9 Nico Hulkenberg 80
10 Kevin Magnussen 55
11 Kimi Raikkonen 53
12 Sergio Perez 47
13 Jean-Eric Vergne 22
14 Romain Grosjean 8
15 Daniil Kvyat 8
16 Pastor Maldonado 2
17 Jules Bianchi 2
18 Adrian Sutil 0
19 Marcus Ericsson 0
20 Esteban Gutierrez 0
21 Max Chilton 0
22 Kamui Kobayashi 0
Constructors’ Championship:
1 Mercedes 651
2 Red Bull-Renault 373
3 Williams-Mercedes 254
4 Ferrari 210
5 McLaren-Mercedes 161
6 Force India-Mercedes 127
7 Toro Rosso-Renault 30
8 Lotus-Renault 10
9 Marussia-Ferrari 2
10 Sauber-Ferrari 0
11 Caterham/Renault 0
Next race: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina. November 21-23.
Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was convinced that his spin cost him the chance to go for victory. Autosport.com has the story.
Lewis Hamilton is sure his mid-race spin cost him victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix, as Nico Rosberg’s win narrowed his Formula 1 championship lead to 17 points.
Hamilton was gaining on his Mercedes teammate in their second stints at Interlagos, and was poised to take the lead as he set new fastest laps after Rosberg had pitted from first place.
But before he could reach his pitstop, Hamilton had a spin at the Descida do Lago, costing him seven seconds.
That allowed Rosberg to stay ahead, and despite Hamilton getting back onto his tail by the closing laps, the German was able to hang on and win for the first time since the German GP in late July.
“I think ultimately it cost the win,” said Hamilton of his spin.
“I was much quicker up until that point and on that lap, I had gone one second quicker as Nico pitted.
“I thought I was going to pit at the end of that lap and on next lap I had nothing [left on the tyres].
“At the end of the day I locked the rears into Turn 4 and under rotation that spun me around, the second time it happened this weekend – no one’s fault but mine.”
The result came a week after Hamilton had secured United States GP victory by overtaking early leader Rosberg midway through the Austin race.
Rosberg said after taking pole in Brazil that he could not afford to lose out in the same manner again, with Hamilton having established a 24-point lead with five consecutive victories.
After reducing that gap to 17, Rosberg said he had put lessons learned at Austin into practice.
“Austin was a tough day for me on Sunday, and it was important for me to improve,” he said.
“I didn’t do a good enough job in the [US] race. Today I managed to do that. That I am happy about: I learned from Austin and did better, so that is a big step in the right direction.
“It was a great race with Lewis just behind me, and I needed to make sure the gap was such that there was no chance for him to go for the overtake, unlike Austin, which was good.”
With double points applying for Abu Dhabi, Hamilton needs to finish second to be champion if Rosberg wins the finale in a fortnight’s time.
“It is still all to play for,” said Rosberg. “I need to keep this going.”
Williams driver Felipe Massa thought podium finish was lost following a five-second stop/go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Despite that, the Brazilian was able to recover and came through to third. Autosport.com has the details.
Felipe Massa says he thought he’d missed out on a Brazilian Grand Prix podium when he was given a five-second stop-go penalty for speeding in pitlane.
The Williams racer, who finished third behind the two Mercedes drivers, was penalised for speeding in the pits while making his first stop, which required him to serve a five-second penalty during his second stop.
“I think the race was amazing, everything happened in my race today,” he said.
“I am so happy, but not happy with my mistake today.
“I just had a problem when I came for the [first] pitstop, I pushed my limiter but it didn’t go.
“I think I could have lost the podium in that mistake with the penalty for five seconds.
“I was so disappointed it happened, then I was pushing even harder, but the problem is you cannot push so hard as you use too much of the tyres.
“I managed to take care of the tyres and managed to have a good pace straight away.”
It wasn’t Massa’s only mistake of the day; he also stopped in the McLaren box during his third stop of the afternoon, before being waved on and into the Williams pit.
“They changed our garage this race, and we are a lot more in the middle,” he said.
“And McLaren, with similar colour, they were there, I thought it was our garage.
“So I lost a lot of time with that but I was pushing again, managing the tyres and opening the gap again compared to Jenson [Button].
“It was really a fantastic race. The people are still here, screaming, the whole energy is difficult to explain. Amazing.”
Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel had memories of his 2012 clash which affected his opening lap form. Autosport.com has the full story.
Sebastian Vettel said memories of his first-lap clash with Bruno Senna in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix triggered his loss of ground early in this year’s Interlagos Formula 1 race.
The Senna incident at the Descida do Lago corner two years ago almost cost Vettel that season’s F1 title, as he had to fight back through the field after spinning in a tangle with the then-Williams driver.
This year Vettel lost out to Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso when he ran wide at the same corner dodging a move from the McLaren on the opening lap.
“I had a good launch, then I had nowhere to go in Turn 1, then at Turn 4 maybe I don’t have the best memories from two years ago,” Vettel explained of his drop from sixth to eighth on lap one.
“I didn’t know how aggressive Kevin might be and left a little too much space, I lost the car and went wide, and lost positions because I couldn’t get on the power out of the corner.
“I lost momentum, and had to fight hard to get the positions back through the race.”
Vettel eventually made it back to fifth place in his Red Bull, although he was disappointed that he could not challenge Jenson Button’s McLaren for fourth.
“At the beginning of the race I think we were hoping we would be stronger against the McLaren, but it seemed very competitive today and if anything we were matched,” said the German.
“I was hoping for maybe one more position but in the end sixth is a good result.”
The second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo retired when running eighth just after half-distance.
The Australian initially thought his left-front brake had failed, but the problem turned out to be with the suspension, and Red Bull plans to carry out a thorough investigation into the failure.
“We don’t know the cause,” said team boss Christian Horner.
“We need to quarantine the parts and have a good look at whether any contact was made early in the race and understand what the cause is.”
Ricciardo added: “A few laps before I felt a little bit of wobbles when I was braking. The car seemed to be behaving a little bit weird.
“You never know, it could be tyres wearing, so you try not to take too much notice, but eventually when I braked into Turn 1 the car shot a little right.”
Jenson Button feels he has nothing to prove in Formula 1, after taking a fourth place finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix for McLaren.
The 2009 world champion’s future remains in doubt amid speculation that Fernando Alonso will join Mclaren for next year, and Button says his performance shows that he is still driving, and racing, as well as ever.
“I feel I’m doing a pretty good job at the moment,” he said. “I’ve got nothing to prove and this is what I’ve done for 15 years.
“I’ll always do my best and sometimes it isn’t enough but today it was.
“I think I’ve had ‘it’ since I was 20 years old, [and] I think my experience showed today.
“I’m really happy with P4 – you always want more to challenge for the podium – and we thought we were sort of playing with the Williams at one point but it wasn’t the case.
“I enjoyed the race, a great battle with Kimi and to beat both Red Bulls, both Ferraris and a Williams is not a bad day’s work.
“That’s all I can do right now, go out there and enjoy my racing and I loved it out there.
“You have good days and you have bad days when you’re in the situation I am [in], in terms of mentally, but I don’t think any of the days on the circuit have been negative, they’ve always been positive so I’m happy.”
While Button refused to be drawn into discussing his future, he did admit that he does not want to stop.
“I’m not ready to stop racing, no,” he said. “I’m here to race, do the best job I can which is what I try and do every weekend.
“Sometimes it doesn’t work out but most of the time it does.
“All you’ve got to do is drive the car as fast as you can and carry yourself as well as you can.
“That’s all you can do and the rest isn’t in your hands.”
Source: Autosport.com
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was left feeling ‘zero frustration’ at Kimi Raikkonen. Autosport.com has the story.
The Ferrari duo found themselves battling over sixth place at Interlagos, with Alonso behind on fresher tyres after stopping one more time than Raikkonen.
Raikkonen fought hard to defend his position though, and although Alonso made it through he finished 10 seconds behind Sebastian Vettel in fifth.
When asked post-race if Raikkonen’s defending prevented him from finishing higher than sixth, Alonso said: “No, I’m very very happy – zero frustration.
“The most important thing was not the battle with him, it was the battle with the other teams and we got some good points for Ferrari today.
“Even if I could have overtaken Kimi a little quicker I had to save a lot of fuel in the last couple of laps so a battle with Sebastian was never a possibility.”
Alonso said that he was pleased to come out on top in the battle with Raikkonen.
“Finishing in front of him always gives satisfaction,” he added.
“This weekend I managed to finish in front in qualifying and in the race after a weekend where I struggled a bit with some mechanical issues.
“It was definitely a good experience – I had one more stop so I had to recover 21 seconds.
“I had fresh tyres so I had the advantage in the last battle.”
Raikkonen described the dice as “normal racing” and said that he did not feel the battle had cost Ferrari anything overall.
“It’s the same points for the team, and at the end of this kind of season it makes no really big difference for myself or the team as we get the same points [whichever driver finishes ahead].”Fernando Alonso says he feels “zero frustration” towards Ferrari Formula 1 team-mate Kimi Raikkonen after the Finn fought so hard to defend against him late in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Seatbelts and tyre woes cost Valtteri Bottas a higher points finish. Autosport.com has the details.
The Williams Formula 1 team says loose seatbelts and severe rear tyre wear spoiled the Brazilian Grand Prix for Valtteri Bottas.
Bottas qualified fourth and looked a contender to finish on the podium when his Williams team-mate Felipe Massa earned a five-second penalty for speeding in the pits at his first stop.
But the Finn lost time at his second pitstop to have his crotch seatbelts re-tightened and couldn’t recover, eventually finishing a lapped 10th.
The Finn said he suffered severe graining of his left-rear tyre during his third stint, which ruined his race.
“There was a big band of massive graining, so I think it was a construction problem or something in the left-rear,” Bottas said.
“That slowed me down quite a bit, I was sliding a lot and the tyres were destroyed really quickly.
“Then the last stint was compromised because it became really long, so I just needed to try and get to the end without stopping again.”
Bottas had hoped to continue with loose belts, but Williams performance chief Rob Smedley said they had to be re-tightened for safety reasons.
“I instructed the mechanics to check everything because you’re dealing with safety,” Smedley explained.
“So we put ourselves out of contention for any big points because we added something like 12 seconds to the stop, but there was no question we wouldn’t do that.”
Smedley said Williams was puzzled as to why Bottas suffered worse rear tyre graining than team-mate Massa, who recovered from a five-second penalty and a delay from mistakenly stopping at the McLaren garage to finish third.
“We’re trying to understand what happened with the rear tyres; both drivers complained to a certain extent in the second stint that it was difficult,” Smedley said.
“We subsequently found that Felipe had a plastic bag stuck in his front wing, which was losing him performance.
“For Valtteri the graining came a lot earlier than we expected.
“The third stint for him we have to investigate properly as to why the rear tyres were in such bad shape compared to Felipe.
“Valtteri was also unfortunate to pick up a visor tear-off that got stuck in the endplate of the rear wing, so there are a lot of mitigating circumstances.”
Nico Rosberg says that Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton’s spin in the Brazilian Grand Prix was “good to see” and gives him hope for the title decider.
Hamilton can win the championship in the Abu Dhabi GP by finishing second to Rosberg, so the German needs him to hit more trouble to allow other cars to get between them.
When asked how important Hamilton’s spin was, Rosberg said: “It’s good to see, and I hope that it’s slightly dented his confidence.
“I need to win in Abu Dhabi and he needs to help me out so we will see what happens.
“[In Brazil] he also showed that there can be mistakes going into the last race.”
GP analysis: Hamilton loses out in knife-edge call
Rosberg said that Hamilton’s spin, which came as he appeared on course to jump the German for the lead during a pitstop cycle, helped him manage his tyres for later in the race.
“I was pleased to hear that he lost some time,” said Rosberg. “That was good as I could take care of my tyres.
“I used that gap so I could be sure to have enough tyres left at the end of the stint.”
While Rosberg said that he does not like the “artificial” double points rule for the F1 season finale, he added that it was disappointing that he was not close enough in the standings to make it a straight fight for victory between the two Mercedes drivers.
“Onwards and upwards,” he said. “It’s a pity that it’s not in my hands just by four points.
“I need a bit of help from Lewis in some way at the last race, and today showed that anything can happen.”
Rosberg accepted that his best chance of Hamilton finishing below second at Yas Marina would be if Williams is on the pace, and he joked that he would try to get the most out of Brazilian GP podium finisher Felipe Massa.
“Lewis must not finish higher than third, which is difficult with the car that we have,” he said.
“I don’t know who is able to finish second – maybe a Williams can do a lucky strike or something.
“It would be awesome if they find some magical form and somehow get by.
“With the top speed they have it is realistic. Maybe there are some factors that can play into my hands.
“I need to motivate Felipe Massa so that he is on absolute stunning form over there and comes second and I win the race!”
Source: Autosport.com